QUINN AIMS FOR CUP RUN

And he has told his side that they must perform well in the ‘massively important’ cup campaign which begins with the fifth round tie against Harland and Wolff Welders at Tillysburn Park on Saturday (kick-off 2pm).

The Blues haven’t played since December 19 as their last four scheduled matches have been postponed including the derby match against Portadown which now been postponed twice.

Quinn is therefore keen for his side to go as far as they can in the Irish Cup in order to ensure that there are no more free Saturdays for the club and their fans. He also stressed the new found importance of the competition in a financial sense and hopes that his famed pedigree in the competition can continue in his first Irish Cup campaign at Glenavon.

“The Irish Cup has become massively important for us now,” he began

“We can’t afford to have any more free Saturdays and financially it is so important for the club to go as far as we can in the competition.

“My record in the Cup hasn’t been bad and I’m hoping that it can rub off on Glenavon. I remember Glenavon’s last Irish Cup win very well indeed as I was then in charge of the losing finalists, Cliftonville and hopefully we can go that far again.”

However, Quinn also admits that the preparation for the game has been far from ideal as the extreme weather conditions wreak havoc with training plans and also mean that he has not been able to watch Saturday’s opponents ahead of the game. The boss is also sceptical of the game’s prospects of going ahead following the recent freeze.

“Again, I have my doubts about Saturday’s game going ahead with the snow freezing and thawing,” he said.

“If there was a thaw the pitch would be flooded but we’ll do our best to prepare ourselves this week. We trained on Tuesday night and we’ll train on Thursday night again and we’ve got our heads set on the cup game which isn’t going to be easy.

“I haven’t even had a chance to get to watch the Welders because their games have all been called off as well as ours. It’s a nuisance.

“I know that they’ve a relatively experienced team featuring Marty Verner, who we all know. He’ll score a goal or two if you don’t watch him and they have plenty of experience throughout their team.”

During his nine year spell in charge of Coleraine, Quinn brought them to three Irish Cup finals, winning the competition in 2003 after beating Glentoran 1-0 in the final, but how is Quinn looking to bring the same success to Mourneview Park?

“I think it’s self-belief and telling the players that they’re going to go all the way. It’s just getting it into their heads, that they’re going to go to the Irish Cup final,” he told the ‘MAIL.’

“That’s what I did at Coleraine, and we said it from day one. We had the hunger and belief that we were going to do it and we got to two finals in my time there. As I say, it’s very, very important that we do something in the Cup anyway.”